Rest
by subduedfangirl
Summary: "Levi, are you sick?" Hanji asked. He sniffled. "No." [Written for Levihan Week 2015. Prompt - Denial. Manga spoilers from Chapter 69 are referenced, but are not explicit.]


**(A/N: I've had this idea in mind for a while, but I didn't have the time to write it until now! When I saw the prompts for Levihan Week, this was the first one that came to mind. I hope that you guys enjoy it!)**

* * *

Hanji had noticed that Levi had looked pale that morning, but training started before she could ask him the reason. Later she'd seen him shivering, but he wasn't the only one—a fresh layer of snow had fallen the night before, and Hanji's teeth were chattering throughout most of the day. But now that she was sitting across from Levi in the mess hall at dinner, watching him try to cover up his coughing for the third time in as many minutes, the pieces came together.

"Levi, are you sick?" Hanji asked.

He sniffled. "No."

"Your nose is redder than a skinless Titan," Hanji said, pointing with her fork.

Levi rubbed it, scowling. "I'm fine," he said, scraping his fork around the edges of his plate.

Hanji put down her silverware, placing her hands under her chin to stare at him. He was still pale, and his eyes looked dull. If she looked closer, Hanji could see him shaking from his shoulders down through his arms like he had a perpetual chill.

"Got any aches or pains?" Hanji asked. "I _know_ you're not getting enough sleep."

A few people further down the table from them stopped talking. Levi coughed a few times into the bend of his elbow.

"You're giving people the wrong idea, shitty glasses," Levi said when he recovered. His voice was going hoarse.

Hanji didn't answer, but reached across the table to touch Levi's forehead. She'd only just made contact with her palm when Levi jumped back. His chair scraped across the floor, causing more heads to turn. "The fu—!" he started, his swear cut off by yet another coughing fit. Hanji stared at her hand, acting like nothing strange had happened.

"You're burning up," she said, glancing back at Levi. "You shouldn't have gone out in the snow today, that probably made it worse."

Levi pulled his chair back towards the table, still sniffling. The crowd had lost interest. "I'm not sick," he repeated, stabbing at his food but not eating it.

"Ok," Hanji said. "Convince me that you're not sick."

"I'm not sick," Levi said, sniffing again, "Because I don't _get_ sick."

Hanji blinked at him. "Levi, that's biologically impossible."

"I just don't," he repeated, poking at his food with his fork once again.

"To never get sick, you would have to spend your entire life in a completely sterile environment, which is also biologically and logically impossible," Hanji continued, waving her hands. "And even if you had, an immune system that's never had any threats is weaker than—"

"Fine. I haven't gotten sick since I was a snot-nosed brat," Levi said, cutting her off.

Hanji opened her mouth to tell him that, technically, he was snot-nosed at that very moment, but he started coughing again, more violent than the last fit. Levi doubled over, turning away from the table and covering his mouth with his sleeve. Hanji dragged his food out of range, waiting for his coughing to stop before speaking.

"You have the flu," Hanji said. She picked up the plate when Levi reached for it. "I'm going to find out if there's some soup you can have. In the meantime, you need to go back to your room and rest."

Levi glared at her. "I already said that I'm not sick, shitty glasses."

"Then you're in denial," Hanji responded. "And I can't eat when I'm watching you cough yourself to death."

They stared each other down, Levi relenting when another shiver forced him to break eye contact. "If it gets you off my back," he said.

Hanji smiled in response.

* * *

He liked the tea she brought him at least. Despite his hands shaking, Levi didn't spill a single drop, even with the strange way he held his cup. Hanji chalked that one up to practice. Levi had ignored the bowl of soup she'd placed on the nightstand next to his bed though. _He's like a little kid when he's sick,_ Hanji thought.

She opened up the bag by her feet that she'd brought with her from her room. Hanji hadn't told Levi yet, but she was planning to watch over him for the night to make sure his flu didn't turn into something worse. She'd brought a few books and some research to review, and one more thing—

Hanji held out a small paper envelope that held some medicine as Levi drained the last of the tea. "I stopped by the medic," she said. "They said that if you take the medicine and get some rest, you should be fine in a few days."

Levi looked at the medicine and then at Hanji. "I don't need it," he said.

Hanji held it closer to his face. "Take it," she said.

"No," he said, frowning.

Hanji leaned forward. "Levi, if you don't take this medicine, I will dump my lab waste in here for a month," she said.

Levi glared back. "No you won't," he said.

Hanji tapped the medicine against his cheek. "Try me," she said.

They stared down each other for a few seconds before Levi grabbed the medicine packet out of Hanji's hand. Before Hanji could offer him some water, Levi opened it and dumped the medicine in his mouth. He swallowed it without any change in his expression.

"That stuff's pretty bitter," Hanji pointed out.

Levi coughed once and then shook his head. "It's fine," he said.

Hanji shrugged and put down the glass of water. "If you say so…"

"Why are you so worried about me, four eyes?" Levi asked.

Hanji bit her lip, thinking. "If you've really never been sick, then you don't know how to take care of yourself when you are," she said. "And if you don't take care of yourself right, things can get worse."

Levi laid down in bed, but didn't answer her. Hanji went back to her bag, taking out one of the books and opening it.

"Hanji."

"Mmm?"

"Can Titans get sick?" Levi asked.

Hanji glanced over the top of her book at him. Levi's eyes were only half open. Either the medicine or the fatigue was getting to him. "Dunno," Hanji answered, putting her book down. "Maybe I should research that next."

"It would…be a lot easier to kill a Titan if they could get like this," Levi said, his words getting slower.

"Yeah, it would," Hanji said, pulling the quilt at the end of the bed up to his chin. "Now go to sleep."

His eyelids fluttered. "You should leave," Levi said, starting to slur the words out of drowsiness.

"I'm staying in case you need something else," Hanji said, opening her book again, "since I'm not letting you out of that bed until you feel better."

"You'll get sick too," Levi continued.

Hanji shrugged, trying to find the place she'd left off in the book. "I can deal with lying in bed for a few days with the flu."

" _No._ "

Levi pushed the blankets off him and sat up. His shivering had gotten worse. Hanji dropped the book and moved to grab Levi's shoulders, but he grabbed her wrists instead. She almost pulled out of his weak grip, but when Levi looked up at her, she stopped.

"I can't get you sick," Levi said, his shivering making her arms shake as well. His eyes were wide with fear.

Hanji had only seen Levi look that scared a handful of times, and each one had involved Titans and the threat of death. Something about getting someone sick made him just as scared.

Then Hanji remembered the off-hand jokes she heard every year around flu and cold season, about how people in the Underground died from just a sneeze.

 _"Maybe if they got off their lazy butts and worked a bit, they could afford some medicine!"_

 _"Eh, I'm not complaining. All it means is less people looking for handouts."_

Hanji slipped her hands out of Levi's grasp and placed them on his shoulders, the weight suppressing the shaking. The important thing right now was that he got some rest. Hanji looked right at him. She could see her reflection in his blue eyes.

"Levi, if I leave right now, do you promise to get some sleep?" she asked.

He gave her a slow nod. Hanji let out the breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding, her hands slipping from his shoulders. She stood up.

"Then, good night, Levi," Hanji said.

"Night, shitty glasses," he mumbled.

Hanji took her book and the chair with her, propping it up against the door after it closed. As she sat down, she heard a muffled _thump_ from inside the room that sounded like something Levi-shaped hitting the mattress.

Hanji smiled, opening her book. If anything went wrong, she was still close enough to hear him. Hanji turned the page and settled in the chair for a long night.

* * *

She woke up with a jump, the book slipping from her fingers and onto the stone floor, the sound echoing off the walls. There wasn't anyone around. The light in the hallway had changed from the glow of candles into the gray cold of an early winter morning.

Hanji stretched, cracking her neck, and picked the book up off the ground. She stood up and moved the chair out of the way, tapping on Levi's door. "Levi," she whispered into the crack in the door. "It's morning…"

No response. Hanji pushed the door open and stepped inside. In the half-light of his room, all Hanji could make out was a lump of rolled up blankets. They rose and fell to the sound of Levi's steady breathing.

Hanji tiptoed to the bed, crouching down beside his mattress. He'd somehow rolled himself up in the blankets, but his face and the tops of his fingers were still visible. Hanji reached out a few fingers and placed them against Levi's forehead to check his temperature. She expected that to wake him up—her hands were cold from sleeping in the hallway—but his breathing didn't change.

Hanji pulled her hand back. Levi's temperature was down. It didn't look like he was shaking anymore, even though it was hard to tell through all the blankets. She couldn't remember hearing him cough before she'd fallen asleep either, so the medicine must have worked.

She crossed her ankles and sat down were she was, watching Levi's sleeping face. Hanji had never seen Levi look so relaxed. There was no trace of his near-constant frown or the crease between his eyes. He was almost unrecognizable like that.

Hanji smiled, happy to see a side of him she hadn't known before. She reached out again, moving some stray strands of hair out of his face.

"Worry about yourself a little bit more," Hanji whispered to him. "And feel better soon."


End file.
